Archives

Friends

Meta

Breakfast – the forgotten meal

Breakfast always seems to fall off my things to do list somewhere in between the second or third time I reach over to fumble over the snooze button on my alarm clock. It’s something I know I probably should be doing, but lack the motivation to bother with most days. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!”, “You’ll never have enough energy without a good breakfast!”, which is all very well and good, but then the rest of you are thinking… “Do cigarettes count as breakfast?”. (and yes, they do, but only if they’re menthol. Regular cigarettes are more your brunch type smokes, and a cigar would be a tidy lunch (Monte Cristo No 2 if you’re feeling gourmet).

Last weekend however, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. So I dragged myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 11am, washed the sleep out of my eyes and started to get busy in the kitchen.

Now for me… breakfast has to simple. I’m not entirely coordinated at the best of times, and so I don’t really want to be performing intricate surgery with sharp knives while my eyes are still half gummed up with sleep (is it just me that it happens to btw ??).

A quick glance into the fridge proved fruitful. I had eggs. The backbone of society, and the most complete meal you will ever find that can be squeezed out of a chickens backside. The central element of the story in place, the rest of the meal all fell into place with a resounding thud… Omlette.

Ingredients

4 eggs

2 handfuls of fresh basil leaves torn up

chopped garlic – clove or two

Handful or two of grated mozzerella

baby english spinach (teenage or toddler spinach if you can’t find babys)

a dash or two of white wine vinegar

a couple of splashes of milk

a sashay of salt and cracked black pepper

A sprinkling of chopped red capsicum

How I Made It
Directions were simple… I was still half asleep remember. This is my standard method for making an omlette, so if you have some additions or suggestions to make, then please let me know as I am nothing if not flexible.

Beat the eggs and mix in all the ingredients, season nicely with salt and pepper and add the milk, vinegar, cheese and mix again until its a relatively homogeneous looking mixture. In a pan, melt a little butter over a moderate heat, and then pour your omlette mixture in. Give it a bit of a shake to spread the chunky bits around, and then let it settle and wait til the base starts to set.
Once the base of the omlette has set enough, and its still a bit wet on top, transfer the whole pan into a warm oven (180 C). Then just leave it in the oven for about 5 minute or so and you are done. Take the pan out (careful of the hot handle) and place a plate over the top. Flip the pan and if you’re lucky it’ll drop out nicely onto the plate. I don’t do any other fancy flipping or shimmying of the omlette because I don’t know how, and at this point I’m starving and need protein.

Toast some bread, butter it up, slap the omlette on top, and Robert is your fathers brother.

This one was particular airy and fluffy, which was quite delightful. It went just nice with my latte as well, which whilst having some very dubious attempt at latte art done on top of it, was actually quite good, and may have been the last coffee I made on my Silvia before her boiler died (see next post).

The rest of the day was just as good, lying back on the couch watching downloaded episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential (which I somehow missed when it was on TV), and revelling in eggy gluttony. Can’t think of anything much better.

10 thoughts on “Breakfast – the forgotten meal”

It’s a subject I’ve had some interest in, as I’ve been looking for a machine for home. I ended up deciding on a Saeco Aroma, and I’m waiting impatiently for it to arrive. Thought about a Silvia – they have pretty good writeups – but it was a bit too ex’y.

I’ve ordered it over the internet from a crowd called Bay Coffee Roasters in Sydney. I went for it because it had some pretty decent reviews for the price and also because it has a boiler, which seems to be the go rather than some sort of thermoblock. Not that I even knew what a thermoblock was two weeks ago, but anyway.

Haven’t got a grinder yet. I’ve heard some good things about one called a Lux, which David Jones has for about $260.

Fair enough, can’t say I’ve heard of Bay Coffee Roasters, but then I haven’t heard of a lot of places. Boiler vs Thermoblock will normally always favour the boiler in terms of being able to produce decent quality steam for milk texturing, although I have heard a lot of good things about the Paul Bassett designed Sunbeam machine, which is a dual thermoblock design for seperate brewing and steaming.

The Lux grinder is supposed to be pretty good for the price, but i’ve also been hearing good things about the Sunbeam grinder that matches the espresso machine. It’s got conical burrs (better for keeping the coffee cool while grinding and less mess inside), and is supposed to do a pretty good job. Think it may even be cheaper than the lux too.

Just got my Silvia back from the repair place… It was just an overload switch that needed to be reset…thank God… We can all breath easy :)

Good news indeed. And it’s also good to know that the machine can save you from yourself, when anything inadvertent happens.

It was very odd, when I read your reply yesterday arvo I’d literally just gotten back to work from David Jones where the shop assistant was unpacking those new Sunbeam grinders, as well as patiently explaining to me who Paul Bassett is. At $190 or thereabouts, it’s about $80 cheaper than the Lux.

Yeh, I was glad it didn’t cost me the estimated $250 to replace the boiler… Although slightly disappointed I didn’t figure it out myself.

Wow, so David Jones actually know who Paul Bassett is. I can’t say anywhere I’ve been has known anything. So did you end up buying one ? I think the only problem with most of the grinders in that range is that they can be a bit flimsy in terms of using plastic to caste them… and that the stepped adjustment is a really big gap, meaning that changing the grind level by 1 notch can affect the shot of espresso by up to 8 seconds… Ideally you’re looking for around 20 – 30 mls of espresso in 20 – 30 seconds (double the volume in the same time for a double shot). So 8 seconds is a big difference. But i think once you get the grind pretty close for your beans it’ll do you well.

Absolutely… I can’t recommend 5 Senses coffee highly enough. They are local roasters based in rockingham and they supply coffee to most of the cafe’s in Perth that I consider worth going to… Most of these places have their own blend of coffee that 5 Senses roasts.

Or you can order it from their website. As a last resort you can also find it in Fresh Provisions Mt Lawley and Claremont, and Herdsman Fresh, but you want to check the roast date (which is stamped on the back of each package). The coffee they roast for retail stores is one of a range of set blends they do…which are not bad… but if its more than a couple of weeks old, then you won’t get as good results.

As a rule, $10 for a 250g pack of roasted coffee is standard. You can go cheaper, but you probably don’t want to.

Golden rule of coffee is freshness and roast quality. A really dark roasted coffee that has been vacuum sealed in a bag and left on a supermarket shelf for God knows how long is going to give you very thin, cremaless, nasty shots of espresso.

Hrmm, might make this into a post… But hopefully you can get your hands on some good stuff.

Don’t worry, I just make it all up as I go along… But I’d only call it a frittata if I cooked it in the oven from start to finish, and didn’t try to flip it in a highly comical fashion (which I always do… It’s all about the kitchen theatre at my place).

Also, a four cup french press will beat most espresso machines for coffee quality any day (If you can grind fresh coffee that is). Unless you’re prepared to pony up the dough for a decent espresso machine I wouldn’t even bother. If all else fails… follow your heart… it’ll see you straight. Talk to me when you’re ready to upgrade… I’ll point you in the right direction.